


Remus Lupin and Chronic Illness

by frog2522



Series: fic research and writing [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Chronically Ill Remus Lupin, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Learning Disabilities, Living with disabilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28854909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frog2522/pseuds/frog2522
Summary: a short essay-type rant about the portrayal of Remus Lupin's lycanthropy and poverty in the Harry Potter books, and how I personally interpret his character as a reader with chronic pain. Some parts of this come from a speech I wrote on Inspiration Porn and Ableism in Marketing.Include a bibliography for further reading on disability theory and living with chronic conditions.
Series: fic research and writing [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113935
Kudos: 11





	1. short essay

18% of the UK population disabled and make up nearly half of the population living in poverty. The stigma around lycanthropy in the HP universe means that Remus’ disability is both the cause and effect of his poverty, he cannot be provided the support and protection that would allow him to be employed and without that employment other long-term health issues will start to arise from lack of financial security. In the UK and in the HP universe, healthcare is free however Remus’ condition is incurable and like in our universe, some medication (wolfsbane) is expensive and uncommon enough that it can be hard to get a hold of in the right dosages. His character description shows clear signs of both his chronic illness and poverty: “The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey." His lycanthropy has an obvious toll on his overall physical health and the poverty no doubt is obvious just from his clothes and fatigue. 

“the second most defining aspect of Remus's life (after his parents) is his illness. The illness is not just as aspect of his personality, something that he suffers and deals with. It is something that defines who he *is*, especially if he can't recall a time when he was not sick.” (Andrea 2003) 

Like many of us who live with chronic conditions, disabilities and pain, Remus faced a life of isolation. Other than his parents, he was not given the key social interactions many children experience with peers their own age. Isolation from community is a common point explored in disability theory, and Remus’ isolation would have stunted his social development. Remus’ settlement into school would have been a long and extremely distressing experience, not only is he away from his parents for the first time but around complete strangers and forced to navigate his chronic illness with the threat of institutionalisation if people found out about it. He has never been around strangers up until this point nor ever been away from his parents, let alone lived independently in such a social environment as a boarding school.

All disabilities and long-term illnesses face some sort of stigmatisation in outer social perspective, but ever on an intra-community level are some conditions further stigmatised. For example HIV, facial and body deformities and scaring. These are commonly explored in Southern Gothic literature, following a narrative of the ‘grotesque’ body. Remus was conditioned to keep other people at arm’s length by the people who influenced his life, his lycanthropy is stigmatised even by those who have close relationships to him. The ‘prank’ weaponized Remus’ condition which potentially furthered Remus’ own beliefs around his condition and his lack of a place in society. 

Rowling has no idea how to write or portray disabilities, so we can only piece together assumptions based on audience interpretation. Magic clearly cannot cure everything, Madeye uses prosthetic, Neville and Ariana Dumbledore is possibly neurodivergent and the portrayal of mental illnesses within the books is biased and uneducated at best (longbottoms and Ariana). Disabled people are seen as expandable, their lives given less worth than others. They might be seen as a tragedy but even in children’s media such as Harry Potter, those living with disability are killed before they can live to old age.

The term ‘inspiration porn’ was coined by Stella Young in 2012, referring to the objectification of disabled people for the benefit of an able-bodied and neurotypical audience. It sensationalises disabled bodies, often depicted as young disabled children doing simple every-day activities captioned with Scott Hamilton’s quote “the only disability in life is a bad attitude”. This assumes disabilities automatically equal a tragedy or obstacle to overcome, ignoring the issues such as disabled poverty and worker’s rights. As a marketing student, I’ve seen how we favour touching stories of how a positive attitude can get anyone through any hardship. We see this repeated over and over in multiple pieces of media alongside trauma porn. 

We encourage a privilege-oppression dynamic that often reinforces our able bodied saviour narrative: a mindset that encourages abled people to assume incompetence. By continuing this narrative into accessible media, we continue to turn carers into martyrs. On the surface this is obviously harmful for the disabled community but also to able-bodied consumers who are left feeling relieved or guilty for their privilege and stuck in a meritocracy. It is used to motivate abled consumers or create a sense of pity and relief. Inspiration porn will never be for the benefit of disabled representation but instead a constant cycle of feeding into the preexisting stigma. This narrative continues with Rowling sensationalising Remus and making it seem like his ability to do normal things such as get married, have a family and be happy is something he should be congratulated on. I agree that his condition makes life harder, but it doesn't make Tonks a martyr for loving him, we shouldn't place the Marauders on a podium of praise for simply being Remus' friend and helping to create accessibile to make Remus' transformations more comfortable and less isolating. 

It’s extremely rare for me to find good disabled rep in any kind of media, however characters such as Kaz Brekker, Barbara Gordan (Oracle), Remus Lupin and Hawkeye have become crucial to feeling less alone on days where even moving out of bed is too painful for me. Researching life with disabilities, chronic illnesses and mental health issues so you can write authentic and three dimensional characters means a lot to me and I will continue researching beyond my own experiences to have a better understanding and improve my own writing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see previous work in my research and writing series "Mental Health in the All For the Game Series" for my ongoing research on mental health and the portrayal of it in media.


	2. Bibliography

Feminist Queer Crip by Alison Kafer 

Care work: dreaming disability justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha 

Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability by Robert McRuer

The Rejected Body by Susan Wendell

Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty=First Century by ALice WOng

Sex and Dissability by Robert McRuer

No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro

Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity by Simi Linton

Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smart About People WHo Think   
Differently by Steve Siberman and Oliver Sacks

Blackness and Disabilities: Critical Examinations and Cultural Interventions by Christopher M. Bell

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, ad the AIDS EPidemic by Randy Shilts 

Aids and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag 

Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz 

https://despitepain.com/ [blog] written by Elizabeth Sirrell 

https://www.brainlesionandme.com/ [blog] written by Rhiann John 

https://myanomalyanomaly.com/ [blog] written by Olivia O’Sullivan 

Disability Rights UK. (2020). ‘Nearly half of everyone in poverty is either a disabled person or lives with a disabled person’ 

Yeo, R., (2005). Disability, Poverty and the New Development Agenda 

Andrea., (2003). Chronic Childhood Illness and Remus Lupin, Available from: https://hp-essays.livejournal.com/2006.html 

thesisread,. (2020). Remus Lupin and Disability (pt 1-11) [tiktok] 

Young, S., (2014). Inspiration porn and the objectification of disability [Tedx Talk]


End file.
